This new year brings us new seasons of some of the biggest anime in recent years, and despite the fact that the manga of ‘Tokyo Revengers’ by Ken Wakui has left a somewhat bittersweet ending, anime fans have been patiently waiting for the premiere of the second season for many months.
‘Tokyo Revengers’ entered the anime world like a tornado and quickly became one of the most acclaimed series of its season with his exploration of the world of Japanese street gangs.
back to the future i want
The story starts with Takemichi Hanagakia young man with a somewhat sad life who one day discovers that Hinata Tachibana and his brother Naoto have been killed by the gang of tokyo manji. Hinata was his teenage girlfriend and the news leaves him a little touched, and to go from bad to worse, someone pushes him onto the tracks just as a train is arriving.
To his surprise, Takemichi opens his eyes and has not died, but has returned exactly twelve years ago. So with his newfound power, he decides to relive the best days of his life and use his knowledge of the future to change his own life and the lives of his friends.
Input, ‘Tokyo Revengers’ begins by breaking all the time travel rules that “don’t interfere with anything”, because Takemichi has seen the future that awaits him and has little desire to return to it. So even though he has a bit of a hard time understanding what has happened to him, he soon takes charge of the situation.
In this case we have a story of time travel going back and forth where we find ourselves in “the darkest time line” and we have to get out of there. One of the main attractions of ‘Tokyo Revengers’ is undoubtedly This game with the butterfly effects to see where they take you, with a very good beginning that catches you and piques your curiosity very well from the first moment.
Fixing the future quickly becomes a puzzle that we try to solve with Takemichi, with its thriller and mystery points as it gets into bigger and bigger eggplants.
And despite the fact that it still has its moments of comedy, ‘Tokyo Revengers’ can become a drama that represents very well the despair and frustration of its protagonists. It also has a good balance between the slower moments and the brutal confrontations between gangs… but unfortunately The novelty that stung you at first soon wears off and the anime has a hard time picking up.
The butterfly effect of Takemichi’s travels soon becomes repetitive and even frustrating when you see that there could be at least five easier ways to resolve each conflict. The pace of the series does not help to make the plots less repetitive, and unfortunately the animation is also very short if we at least want to look for the redemptive point of “hey, but the action scenes are the cane”.
With all this, no, ‘Tokyo Revengers’ is not a complete disaster. but it is a soap opera with a gangster costume that ends up being terribly addictive because once you enter the well it is very difficult to return up.
Although it starts from a very good idea, much of its potential falls overboard and there are too many things in the rules of our world that don’t make sense and that you have to simply accept and move on… Starting with Takemichi’s abilities to travel through time, and continuing with the big question of where are all the adults while slightly vigorous 14-year-old children stab each other in the next street.
It is a series not to be taken seriously or with brainy pretensions, but it is terribly addictive and also entertaining because things don’t stop happening and the ball of problems is getting bigger and bigger. You’ve got drama blown out of orbit (many times due to the characters’ own stupidity and rampant testosterone), surprisingly sweet camaraderie, and even a relatively cute teen romance if you ignore the more problematic aspects.
‘Tokyo Revengers’ is full of clichés, for better and for worse, because if what you’re looking for is a shōnen from manual you have found what you need. The biggest redeeming point of the series is undoubtedly the characters, and especially Draken and Mikey. when the story takes its time to develop them and break your convictions about what a gang member is.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that we have a very rich cast of characters, many are left without much development in this first part of the series, so hopefully we will see more of them in future chapters.
The first season of the anime consists of 25 chapters that can be seen via Crunchyroll, where the series is already being dubbed into Spanish. The second starts right away with simulcast on Disney+and some rumors suggest that it will consist of some 13 episodes, mainly focusing on the Christmas Conflict Arc.
And honestly, even though ‘Tokyo Revengers’ partly feels like a chore you can’t escape, I’m looking forward to seeing this train burn further.